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Title
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Syllabus: Generative Histories Harlem, Pt. 1, "125th Street Corridor"
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Abstract
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What is “history”, and how do we engage cultural material as designers of the built environment? This course will be the first of a new iteration of Core IV studios supported by the Place, Memory, and Culture Incubator at SSA. This expansive pedagogy is to innovate how we center culture, community, and living history not only in how we preserve, but also how we design and imagine culturally resilient spatial futures for the city. Generative Histories: Harlem, will be to Harlem’s iconic 125th street as a starting point for changing the way we teach design and “do” Design and Historic Preservation. The main effort of the spring course is 1) document and map Harlem and 125th street’s cultural landscape in new and exciting ways, and 2) to test and develop new means to translate Harlem’s historic and living cultural material into design - for the future physical, human landscape of 125th street.
Historic preservation is traditionally concerned with protecting architectural structures with ‘significant’ character. This definition leaves out the myriad more ephemeral ways that heritage and memory manifests in neighborhoods like Harlem. It also often overlooks aesthetics, subjectivities, histories and spaces that fall outside of the more traditional and Eurocentric “canon” of our discipline(s). Can we imagine and embody possible futures where robust community by definition would not destroy its heritage. In the event of a site's transformation into something else, is there space to process, and grieve this change and so integrate its living history?
The studio will build on core competency skills and historical and visual analysis, while also exploring innovative architectural design projects in collaboration with an array of Harlem Community Partners. These partners, supported by the PMCI, will share their work and knowledge of the 125th street region both past, present, and future. This mutual encounter will inform group design projects that will use our new skill sets to create drawings, videos, maps, physical or digital installations for a number of potential sites or constituencies.
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Creator
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Haferd, Jerome
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Date Created
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2024-02
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Date Modified
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2024-04-10
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Instructional Method
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Studio Course
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Language
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English
